Flow cytometer remote monitoring system

Abstract

Generally, computer implemented remote monitoring system which generates a viewable reduced byte data representation for each one of a plurality of analyzed instrument signals. Specifically, a flow cytometer remote monitoring system which generates a viewable reduced byte data representation for each one of a plurality analyzed flow cytometer signals.

1. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer, comprising the steps of:
 a. interrogating a plurality of particles with said flow cytometer, wherein said plurality of particles are differentially responsive based upon at least one particle characteristic; 
 b. producing a signal with said flow cytometer which varies based upon change in at least one particle characteristic of the plurality of analyzed particles; 
 c. analyzing said signal with a first computer operatively coupled to said flow cytometer to continuously convert said signal into a viewable data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles; 
 d. serving with said first computer in serial order a plurality of time bound data representation files of said viewable data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles to a second computer without generating an amount of lag in analyzing said signal from said at least one flow cytometer; 
 e. processing said served plurality of time bound data representation files with an image processor in said second computer to correspondingly generate a first plurality of reduced byte data representation files; 
 f. processing said served plurality of time bound data representation files with said image processor to generate a second plurality of reduced byte data representation files each one having fewer bytes than the corresponding one of said first plurality of reduced byte data representation files; 
 g. serving with said second computer a requested portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files to a third computer; and 
 h. displaying each one of said portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files in serial order with said third computer to provide a viewable reduced byte data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles. 
 
     
     
       2. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1 , wherein said step of serving with said first computer in serial order a plurality of time bound data representation files of said viewable data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles to a second computer without generating an amount of lag in analyzing said signal from said at least one flow cytometer comprises the step of serving with said first computer in serial order a plurality of time bound data representation files of said viewable data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles to a second computer to avoid an amount of lag in analyzing said signal from said at least one flow cytometer. 
     
     
       3. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1 , wherein said step of serving with said first computer in serial order a plurality of time bound data representation files of said viewable data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles to a second computer without generating an amount of lag in analyzing said signal from said at least one flow cytometer comprises the step of serving with said first computer in serial order a plurality of time bound data representation files of said viewable data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles to a second computer to reduce an amount of lag in analyzing said signal from said at least one flow cytometer. 
     
     
       4. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1 , wherein said step of producing a signal from said flow cytometer which varies based upon change in at least one particle characteristic of a plurality of analyzed particles comprises the step of producing a signal from said flow cytometer which varies based upon an amount of deoxyribonucleic acid contained in each of a plurality of analyzed particles. 
     
     
       5. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 4 , wherein said step of producing a signal from said flow cytometer which varies based upon an amount of deoxyribonucleic acid contained in each of a plurality of analyzed particles comprises the step of producing a signal which varies based upon the presence or absence of an X chromosome. 
     
     
       6. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 5 , wherein said step of producing a signal from at least one flow cytometer which varies based upon an amount of deoxyribonucleic acid in each of a plurality of analyzed particles comprises the step of producing a signal which varies based upon the presence or absence of an Y chromosome. 
     
     
       7. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 6 , wherein said plurality of analyzed particles comprises a plurality of sperm cells. 
     
     
       8. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 7 , wherein said viewable data representation comprises at least a histogram which varies based on a frequency of X chromosome bearing sperm cells within said plurality of sperm cells. 
     
     
       9. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 7 , wherein said viewable data representation comprises at least a histogram which varies based on a frequency of Y chromosome bearing sperm cells within said plurality of sperm cells. 
     
     
       10. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 7 , further comprising the step of obtaining said plurality of sperm cells from a male mammal selected from the group consisting of: a bovid, an ovis, an equid, a cervid, a canid, a felid, a pig, a rodent, a whale, a porpoise, a rabbit, an elephant, a rhinoceros, and a primate. 
     
     
       11. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1 , wherein said plurality of time bound data representation files of said viewable data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles comprise a plurality of bit map image representations of said viewable data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles. 
     
     
       12. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 11 , wherein each of said plurality of bit map representations comprises an image file of between about three megabytes and about six megabytes. 
     
     
       13. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1 , wherein said first plurality of reduced byte data representation files comprise a first plurality of image files each between about one hundred kilobytes and about two hundred kilobytes. 
     
     
       14. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 13 , wherein said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files each one having fewer bytes than the corresponding one of said first plurality of reduced byte data representation files comprises a second plurality of image files each between about two kilobytes and about four kilobytes. 
     
     
       15. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 14 , wherein said step of serving with said second computer a requested portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files to a third computer comprises the step of serving said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files over a wide area network to a third computer. 
     
     
       16. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 15 , wherein said step of displaying each one of said portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files in serial order with said third computer further comprises the step of selecting a rate at which to view said viewable reduced byte data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles. 
     
     
       17. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 16 , further comprising the step of displaying each one of said portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files in serial order with said third computer to provide an accelerated viewable reduced byte data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles. 
     
     
       18. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 16 , further comprising the step of displaying each one of said portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files in serial order with said third computer to provide a decelerated viewable reduced byte data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles. 
     
     
       19. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 16 , further comprising the step of selecting said portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files to display with said third computer. 
     
     
       20. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 19 , wherein said step of selecting said portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files to display with said third computer further comprises the step of selecting a time bound portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files generated between a first time point and a second time point of said viewable data representation. 
     
     
       21. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1 , further comprising the step of establishing at a first location having a first local area network which comprises said second computer connected to a plurality of said first computer each correspondingly coupled to one of a plurality of said flow cytometer said second computer further providing a memory element which allows retrievable storage of said first plurality of reduced byte data representation files and said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files corresponding to said a plurality of time bound data representation files served by each one of said plurality of said first computer. 
     
     
       22. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 21 , further comprising the step of establishing at a plurality of locations a corresponding plurality of local area networks each of which comprise said second computer connected to a plurality of said first computer each correspondingly coupled to one of a plurality of said flow cytometer said second computer further providing a memory element which allows retrievable storage of said first plurality of reduced byte data representation files and said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files corresponding to said a plurality of time bound data representation files served by each one of said plurality of said first computer. 
     
     
       23. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 21 , wherein said first local area network further includes said third computer. 
     
     
       24. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 22 , the step of providing a wide area network which includes said first local area network and said third computer. 
     
     
       25. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 22 , further comprising the step of providing a wide area network which includes each of said plurality of local area networks and said third computer. 
     
     
       26. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 25 , further comprising the step of selectably retrieving over said wide area network a portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files corresponding to said plurality of time bound data representation files served by one of said plurality of first computers of said first local area network. 
     
     
       27. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 26 , further comprising the step of selectably retrieving over said wide area network a portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files corresponding to said plurality of time bound data representation files served by one of said plurality of first computers of said second local area network. 
     
     
       28. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 27 , wherein said step of displaying each one of said portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files in serial order with said third computer to provide a viewable reduced byte data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles comprises the step of simultaneously displaying each selectably retrieved said portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files corresponding to said plurality of time bound data representation files served by one of said plurality of first computers of said second local area network. 
     
     
       29. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1 , wherein the step of interrogating a plurality of particles with said flow cytometer further comprises the steps of:
 a. passing each of the plurality of particles through a laser; and 
 b. detecting the light emitted by each of the plurality of particles in response to being interrogated with the laser beam. 
 
     
     
       30. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1 , further comprising the step of the first computer differentiating particles based upon the change in said at least one particle characteristic. 
     
     
       31. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 30 , further comprising the step of providing sort instructions from the first computer to the flow cytometer for sorting particles based upon the at least one particle characteristic. 
     
     
       32. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 31  wherein the flow cytometer sorts the particles into at least two subpopulations based upon the sort instructions from the first computer. 
     
     
       33. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1  further comprising the step of saving both the first plurality of reduced byte data representation files on a memory element of the second computer and the second plurality of reduced byte data representation files on a memory element of the second computer. 
     
     
       34. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer as described in  claim 1  wherein the first plurality of reduced byte data representation files on the second computer and the second plurality of reduced byte data representation files are generated in parallel by said image processor of the second computer. 
     
     
       35. A method of remotely monitoring a flow cytometer, comprising the steps of:
 a. interrogating a plurality of particles with said flow cytometer, wherein said plurality of particles are differentially responsive based upon at least one particle characteristic; 
 b. producing a signal with said flow cytometer which varies based upon change in at least one particle characteristic of the plurality of analyzed particles; 
 c. analyzing said signal with a first computer operatively coupled to said flow cytometer to continuously convert said signal into a viewable data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles; 
 d. generating a first plurality of reduced byte data representation files with an image processor corresponding to said plurality of time bound data representation files; 
 e. generating a second plurality of reduced byte data representation files with said image processor corresponding to said plurality of time bound data representation files; 
 f. storing each of said first plurality of reduced byte data representation files and second plurality of reduced byte data representation files in a memory element of said second computer; 
 g. serving with said second computer a requested portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files to a third computer; and 
 h. displaying each one of said portion of said second plurality of reduced byte data representation files in serial order with said third computer to provide a viewable reduced byte data representation of change in said at least one particle characteristic of said plurality of analyzed particles.